Georgia had been nervous enough about the thought of going dress shopping just with Zev. She had been looking forward to it, sure, because it was the kind of thing girls did in movies and teen dramas, and the fact that Zev had wanted to meet up with her over the holidays and shop together really really meant they were best friends. But she always thought everything looked awful on her, and Zev was so much skinnier and prettier than her, and she saw the way shop assistants looked at her when they thought she wasn’t looking. Or maybe even when they knew she was, because her feelings were a fat person’s feelings and that meant they counted for less. That prospect had been stomach-churning enough, but now they had to shop with the whole school watching. She knew that her classmates were going to end up with the chance to judge her choices eventually - when she was on display during the stupid prefect dance, especially - but having them witness the whole process too, all of the dresses that would suit her even less than what she ended up with, seeing her in everything that showed her bulgy stomach or made her butt look big…

She had waited for Juniper to go out. She had put on her makeup, even though she still wasn’t convinced she had the skills down at angling her blush in such a way as to make her face look thinner. At least she was sparklier.

“You are cute,” she told her reflection. “You have been kissed a boy, which is actually probably more than some girls here. He thought you were cute. No one is going to laugh at you. And, if they do, they’re not worth your time anyway.”

This little pep talk might have been a lot more effective had it not been for the recent Defence Against the Dark Arts class with the Boggart, which had transformed into exactly that - her peers making fun of her. It hadn’t included Zev, who she trusted, Or Juniper. But a handful of the other girls around their age… She hadn’t done a whole lot of making eye contact with them since that point. And she really didn’t want to see them now, or for them to see her. However, it really seemed like she didn’t have much of a choice.

She squeaked out a slightly-too-high ‘hello’ to Zevalyn, letting her friend do the chatting as they made their way into the hall, her stomach sinking even further as Zevalyn pointed out the other flaw. She had been so busy obsessing about her weight in relation to shopping that she hadn’t even considered the other downside of the whole school being there - some of her classmates came from serious money.

“Yikes,” she muttered, in response to Zev’s assessment of the situation. “Well, we avoid anywhere she’s going,” she nodded at the second year girl who seemed to be perpetually bejewelled, “And I guess just look for anyone who’s not looking down their noses at us... Fun.”

The worst part about the Quarantine was that this was the first time since coming to Sonora that Zev had actually caught up to her peers and she didn’t have to stay to study and practice magic. She... more